Clash of Titans for ROWVA Regional title

Friday

Feb 22, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Geese, Braves meet for regional hardware

Mike Landis

It's the No. 1 seed vs. the upstart for all the regional marbles tonight in Oneida.Top-seeded Wethersfield (24-6) and Annawan (12-19) meet for fourth time this season, but the stakes are much higher this time — the Class 1A ROWVA Regional title and a berth in the Brown County Sectional — for the spring and fall co-op partners. The title game tips at 7:30.Wethersfield coach Jeff Parsons knows his team's three previous wins over the Braves — all by double digits — become ancient history when the ball goes in the air tonight."We've already addressed that," said Parsons. "We're 1-0 this week and they're 2-0, so they've got a better record. What happened in the regular season is over.""They're starting to get the ball down low to Michael Smith," added Parsons of Annawan's regional run. "They're getting more well-rounded scoring, and Michael has just been a beast on the boards."The Geese earned their regional title berth with a fourth-quarter clinic Wednesday night against Abingdon. Trailing 45-43 with five minutes to play, Wethersfield scored the final 19 points of the game for the 62-45 win.Sixth-seeded Annawan has put a pair of higher seeds in its rearview mirror, knocking off No. 3 Ridgewood 76-61 in the opening round Tuesday and upsetting No. 2 Galva 51-46 in Wednesday's second semifinal game.First-year head coach Brandon Christy said his team gained confidence from a pair of losses to close the regular season — Galva in overtime and at Wethersfield where the Braves were within six points in the fourth quarter."Even though we lost those two games, I felt like we came out of them with some momentum," said Christy. "We knew if we kept playing like that, we would have a chance this week."And the Braves did just that, avenging two previous losses to Ridgewood and beating Galva at its own game — pulling wins out of the fire in the fourth quarter."Our record doesn't show how good we really are," said Christy. "We've been in a lot of close games. Galva finished their games, and we kind of let some of those games slip. We finally took advantage of that experience in close games. We kept our composure and didn't let their pressure speed us up. We made some clutch shots and were able to beat a very good Galva team."The next chore is avoiding a fourth loss to the talented Geese."I think we're playing better than we have all year," said Christy. "We know the players and we know the matchups. It comes down to competing and who plays better Friday night."Parsons said the key for his ballclub is continuing to utilize its length and quickness."We always want to be attacking," said Parsons. "We try to play at a pace that's hard to mimic in practice."ROWVA's gym figures to be filled by three fan bases tonight — the Geese, the Braves and the Titans."The gym will be packed and our kids are excited for a chance to play for a regional championship," said Parsons."Our kids are excited and hopefully we can keep riding that momentum and see how far it takes us," said Christy.Tonight's winner will face the Camp Point Central Regional champion at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Brown County Sectional. The host school and top-seeded Mendon Unity play tonight for the Camp Point Central Regional crown.